God Tree, Family Tree
by yaslanagirl
Summary: Kagome tells a bed-time story that has close personal importance to her and her audience. No direct 'shipping, so could be implied anything! One-Shot, Rough and unedited. Sequel to be announced.


Hello all, I'm busy putting up my various babble-talk-tales, as apology for not uploading anything (including this little one-shot) for a very long time!

This story is easier to understand if you accept that this story is being told from the "Omnipotent Narrator" point of view. If I ever get around to it, I'll write the story that explains how and why Kagome knows this much about her past. For now, just enjoy the fruits of my babbling!

Disclaimer:: I do not own Inuyasha, it is the property of Rumiko Takahashi-san! I thank her for introducing this wonderful realm to the world, and invite you to experience my telling of Kagome's feudal era ancestry.

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Kagome's voice flowed over the eons of time and distance, gently lulling her child to restful sleep as she told one of many bedtime stories. This particular story was her personal favorite, spinning the elegant and beautiful folds of time as shimmering fabric. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing that her child would be listening, even if she was too young to really understand everything that was happening, but she would be listening and that was all that mattered for Kagome.

"Long ago, there was a powerful Miko, and she created a jewel with her soul and that of demons so that she could create peace in a war that had lasted for a very long time. She had a sister who, though her blood was just as strong, did not become a trained Miko Priestess as she was the second born female. It was important for her to carry on the family line and the powerful blood it carried.

This same way of succession continued for nearly as long as the war had been going on. While the eldest daughters protected the jewel that maintained peace from total eradication, the second daughters would be responsible for carrying on the family legacy, from Aunt to Niece the jewel was transferred for generations. Because the Miko tasked with protecting the Jewel could not (according to legend) lay with a man, or risk loosing access to her priestess energies. None know from which source that legend came, but none dared challenge it for fear of losing their energies.

This continued uninterrupted until a powerful and well trained priestess named Kikyou fell in love with a demon who was trying to steal her charge. Through trickery and unluckiness, both she and the object of her admiration fell to the traps set by a much more power-hungry demon named Naraku. She died before her younger and only sister, Kaede, was old enough to marry and bear the daughter Kikyou was intended to train.

Shaken by her older sister's death, Kaede was left guideless and haunted. The jewel had vanished in her sister's funeral pyre, leaving Kaede to believe that protecting the jewel was no longer necessary. It would be fifty years before she saw the Jewel again. She eventually overcame the bulk of her depression, having met and fallen in love with a charming youthful man. Never having been trained to be a Miko, Kaede had no reason to avoid marrying and starting a family with him. So, she lay with him and bore him a child. However, before the child was two, the man left her and disappeared into the woods with her child.

Kaede was deeply wounded by his trickery, and denounced any further intimacy with males, deciding firmly that she would simply continue to care for the temple, training a suitable successor from among the other priestesses.

Her child was stripped of the name given to her by her mother, and deposited in a nearby poor village, with a charming but incompetent father figure. The women in the village took her in and gave her a place. Eventually she grew old enough to also bear children.

This woman's husband was little brighter than her father, and they only gave birth to a single daughter named Rin before Rin's mother died of an illness. Rin's father was killed in a careless hunting accident not much later and she was left orphaned in a village where the women would only smile and laugh. She had to steal and scavenge for her food, and this made her even more unpopular.

Her fate didn't improve by much when a wolf pack came and massacred her village, eating many and killing her in the process. Fortunately, she had stumbled upon a wounded demon who was quiet, and helped him a few days prior, so when he saw her corpse in the footpath leading away from the village he resurrected her. As fate would see to it, he was a powerful demon with a legendary sword said to bring life from death, and an even colder and merciless temper and disposition which was also legendary. His name was Sesshoumaru.

Rin spent her entire youth trailing behind Sesshoumaru, being protected as his ward, and growing up the privileged but responsible daughter of the great lord Sesshoumaru, Taiyoukai of the West. Rin grew up to be a lady (though human) in Sesshoumaru's court, and she was married to a sufficiently powerful human male to ensure her safety and continued happiness. She also bore children, two daughters. They also grew up and bore children, with each generation always containing at least one daughter.

This continued until almost 5 centuries after the disappearance of the Jewel. Our story resumes interest with a young woman named Kagome in her late teens, when she is pulled through a strange well that takes her exactly 5 centuries into the past. Upon her arrival, she discovered that the Jewel was reborn inside of her, and that she is the near identical twin to her ancestor, Kikyou. Many suspected that she was the reincarnation of the dead and powerful Miko, since a great deal of power made itself known in Kagome over her travels in the feudal era. She was, in fact, simply the great-great-great-times-a-hundred-grand-niece of Kikyou."

Kagome's eyes cleared and focused on her sleeping daughter, and smiled. She continued quietly, "and you are my daughter. This strong blood now also flows within your veins, my sweet angel."

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Please leave a review and let me know what you thought! The word count for those interested is exactly 925, pretty cool, I think! ^_^

Thanks SableDreamer! I've applied the changes you suggested/pointed out ^_^ I'm glad you enjoyed this little ficlet of mine!


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